Welcome back to Possibility Storm, the weekly MTG puzzle series available exclusively through MTGCanada and PossibilityStorm.com.
We dropped this week's puzzle on the way to posting it. Sorry if it looks a little scrambled...!
We've got a few more fun puzzles like this one coming between now and when our next competitive season starts for Rivals of Ixalan on January 16. Check the Patreon for more details!
(Click to enlarge)
Think you've got it? Check your answer against the solution below:
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As always, there is only one way to "beat" this puzzle, and it's all about choosing the right card(s). Give them too many and they have a lot of tools at their disposal. Give them too few and we bleed ourselves to death.
Let's look at scenarios:
- If we give them everything with their Sword-Point Diplomacy, we stay at 10. They cast Sanctum Seeker, and then Bishop of the Bloodstained. Bishop trigger hits us for 6, then Sanctum Seeker's attack trigger plus Vicious Conquistador puts us at -1.
- Similarly, if we give them only Sanctum Seeker and Bishop, the same applies but we start at 7 and just die harder.
- If we give them Vraska's Contempt and either Vampire, we start at 7. They kill one of our blockers, play the Bishop (drains 5 on ETB) or Sanctum Seeker (drains 4 on attack), attack (trigger 1 damage from Conquistador), and get through for a minimum of 2 attack damage. At minimum, that puts us to 0.
- If we give them only either of the Vampires, we start at 4. Bishop drains for 5 and Sanctum Seeker drains for 4 on attack. Either way = DED.
- If we give them nothing, we go down to 1 and take 2 during attacks (1 from Conquistador trigger, 1 getting through) to go to -1.
- Which leaves one remaining line: Give them only Vraska's Contempt. We start at 4, they kill a blocker, then attack getting in 1 from the Conquistador trigger, and 2 combat damage. We survive at 1!
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